RICHMOND, Va. – For the past nine years, Richmonder Ed Quigley has been working to raise awareness about beach umbrella safety.
In 2015, Quigley was vacationing with his family at Bethany Beach in Delaware, when he was impaled in the eye by a windblown beach umbrella.
“I was sitting in a low beach chair, and my brother-in-law yelled, there’s an umbrella coming out of the sand,” said Quigley. “And I turned to my left, and the umbrella just picked up and turned on its end, and the pole of the umbrella went through my left eye. It breached the brain cavity, broke some bones here, shattered the eye socket, it was pretty bad. I had to have brain surgery.”
Since then, Quigley has been working with the American Society for Testing and Materials to develop a safety standard for beach umbrellas.
He’s hoping to raise awareness, and he says the biggest thing safety advice he can give beach go-ers is to ensure your umbrella includes some sort of anchoring device.
“You can’t just put the pole in the sand to be safe,” said Quigley.